All My Children
by TheChosenOne3
Summary: A short story. If you want more just click on the title and read to your heart's delight!


Disclaimer: Don't own TLW!  
  
This is a short story, a letter from Challenger to his wife about.well you'll see. To those of you awaiting the next installment of "Destiny Calls," I will try and get it out this weekend, but I am new to this whole college thing and I'm adjusting so give me a break!  
  
All My Children  
  
by: TheChosenOne3  
  
My Dear Jesse,  
  
I'm not quite sure when it happened exactly. I mean they started out as a group of people, strangers really, who accompanied me on my quest to find this magnificent plateau. But they are strangers no longer. Somewhere along the lines they all became my friends, then my family, and closer still.my children. They are the children that I denied us, I denied you Jesse.  
  
Oh but you would love them, each and every one. I could picture us trying to raise an energetic and rambunctious young girl, a curious dreamer, a fierce and sweet young woman, a noble and courageous man, and a wily and resourceful woman. Oh yes each of them have their faults, some more obvious than others, then again what child doesn't?  
  
You would absolutely adore Finn. She is a lot like I imagine you to have been in your youth. She is inquisitive, bright, and curious as a kitten. Well she is the most recent member of our family, she is no less a member. It was hard for her to adjust to this kind of lifestyle after what she went through in her time. Finn is a survivor. No matter what the plateau has thrown her way, she has overcome it the ease. She truly is an amazing girl. It is just a shame that she did not have the life she deserves. But I will see to it that as long as she is with us, she will be loved and taken care of as she never was before. And when we return to London I'm sure you will too.  
  
Malone is exactly the kind of son we should have had. He is inquisitive and has amazing powers of observation, but what else would you expect from a reporter? Our young Ned was easily the most naïve and unprepared to actually survive our little adventure, probably because he did not expect to have such an adventure to survive. But he did learn quickly and his unique and slightly innocent point of view has saved us all on more than one occasion. The poor lad is not, however, as inexperienced in life as we all thought him to be. He survived the trenches of the Great War, but was so traumatized he simply locked the whole experience out of his mind, until a poison brought it all rushing back. He left us to find himself and came back the same man we all knew and loved, but with a wiser head on his shoulders.  
  
Dear Veronica is the kind of girl every mother dreams of having. She is sweet, kind, and courteous. She is generous and respects others, you would never have believed she was born and raised in the jungles of this lost world. While she is more than capable to survive on her own, her innocence in the ways of human interaction has gotten us all into trouble once or twice. Her heart is so open; she does not know how to close it. She is a true artist in every sense of the word. She sees beauty where all others see pain. And she is no stranger to pain herself. Veronica grew up in near isolation after her father was murdered and her mother resumed a birthright Veronica herself will take on one day. But no matter how much pain Veronica Layton endures, she gives just as much love and nurturing to those around her.  
  
I believe you have heard of Lord John Roxton. Who hasn't? But until you meet him in person, there is no one description that circulates London society that does this man justice. He is a great adventurer to be sure, strong, and courageous. He is noble and honest, something that you don't find in most British nobility these days. The side you don't hear of in London is the side of the man that suffers with condemnation, not condemnation by our society, or God, or even his own family and friends, but condemnation by himself. And that of course is the one form that he will never be able to escape, until he forgives himself. At first it seemed that his willingness to risk his own neck for our lives was to alleviate that guilt in a way, but now he does it out of pure instinct, the instinct to protect loved ones in danger. Day by day I feel that he is stepping away from the ledge he put himself on, and we are all there to see to it that he stays away from it.  
  
And then there is our dear Miss Krux. There is no way to describe this remarkable woman. If you had told me within the first year of our internment on this plateau that I would one day come to think of Marguerite Krux as a daughter I never had, I would have laughed in your face and thought you as insane as my colleagues at the Zoological Society think me. But I turned out to be right, just as you would have. Marguerite is the most mysterious, resourceful, and secretive woman I have ever met. She is also complicated and extremely intelligent. Like Finn and Veronica, she is a survivor. And like Finn and Veronica, she grew up alone. Unlike Veronica, she did not grow up in isolation, but on the streets of everywhere and anywhere. Unlike Finn, she did not grow up in a world where everyone had nothing and it was everyman for himself, she grew up around children who had everything and she had nothing. I'm sure that she has been through more unspeakable things than any of us care to imagine, and yet through all of the pain and abandonment, she still has a very beautiful heart. She has just never encountered anyone interested enough to clear away all of the dust and find it.  
  
I do miss you my love. And watching our young Romeos and Juliets, just makes me homesick for you even more. I watch Marguerite and Roxton in their twisted tango, one minute whispering words of love and devotion and the next minute screaming at each other at the top of their lungs. As long as I live I will never meet a couple who bicker and fight the way Roxton and Marguerite do, but I will never meet a couple more in love with each other either. In a way they are both working to save each other's lives and emotions and very souls. They are connected in a way no mere mortal can understand, and they are connected in a way that outs Romeo and Juliet to shame.  
  
Veronica and Malone are not so contradictory, but no less in love. They are innocent to the ways of such emotion and both are at a complete loss as to how to handle it. At first it was things like Gladys and the plateau that kept them apart, but now larger things weigh on the shoulders of these two young people. Veronica will forever be tied to the plateau, therefore never able to settle down on our world. And Malone does not know if he will be able to cut the ties that hold him to his home, though one of them is not Gladys. I have full confidence that they will work it out, and live a life together that I selfishly never let us have.  
  
It is not just the obvious care that has developed between each of my fellow explorers and I that gives me such paternal feelings towards them; it is the relationships they have formed among themselves that makes them siblings. Roxton and Malone are truly the picture of brotherhood. Roxton the older brother who picks on Malone as much as gives him advice, particularly on the women front, and Malone who looks up to Roxton and on more than one occasion shares advice of his own.  
  
The women are so much alike and so different it is amazing. In the beginning, Veronica and Marguerite both were prepared to do battle with each other. Marguerite being the only person I have ever met to get Veronica so upset and live to do it again, and Marguerite seeing everything she did not have growing up and sought to prove that she did not need. I don't know when it was a truce was struck between the two and sisterhood formed, but I do know that it did not happen too soon. When Finn arrived, Veronica was searching for her parents, and Marguerite was less than hospitable to the newcomer. And while Roxton and I made Finn feel as welcome as possible, Marguerite did not. I suspect that it was Marguerite's coolness that gave Finn the comfort she needed to truly feel at home. Marguerite and Finn led similar lives, and understood one another in ways neither of them will ever admit and I'm not sure they even recognize. Finn and Veronica however act the part of sisters to a tee, sibling rivalry included.  
  
They all look out for each other. The older children tease the younger children, until the younger children gang up on the older ones. It was Malone and Marguerite's relationship that had us worried for a while. In the early days, it was Malone who was often the target of Marguerite's relentless teasing, I suppose she suspected him easy prey, and it was Marguerite who was often the topic of Malone's incessant questions, and I suppose he sensed the story of a lifetime. I personally think that the combination of understanding and coffee that finally brought a brother- sister relationship out in them both.  
  
We live day after day depending on each other for survival in more ways than one. What started on the plateau will not end when we get back to London. I actually have half a mind to legally adopt Finn and Marguerite, and Veronica if she will allow it. But that will have to wait for another time. For now I am content to guide these young people as much as I can and watch them grow more than most people have to. They are all extraordinary and I love them. I am counting the days until I can introduce you to all of my, our, children my dear wife. Until then I will protect them and see to it that you get the opportunity to meet them. I miss you and love you with all my heart Jess. Wait for me; we will all come home to you.  
  
Your Loving Husband, George E. Challenger 


End file.
